Tokiwa-so: The Humble Apartment Where Manga Legends Were Born

Tokiwa-so Manga Museum

(Toshima City, Tokyo) 

【Apāto（アパート） 】 is a Japanese English term derived from “apartment,” and it refers specifically to small, budget-friendly residential buildings for rent. Back in the day, many apartments in Japan were simple two-story wooden buildings, with small rooms partitioned inside.

Around 1960, in a quiet corner of Toshima City, Tokyo, there stood such a wooden two-story apartment (apāto) called Tokiwa-so. The rent was around 3,000 yen per month. There was no bath, and the toilet and kitchen were shared. Each room was a tiny 4.5 tatami mats in size (about 7 square meters). Climbing up the stairs, the wooden boards would make a creaking sound beneath your feet.

The young manga artists, aspiring to create hit works, lived in this mundane apartment. They strove to draw a piece of manga unlike any other. These young men and a woman would eventually become masters of Japanese manga, creating some of the most iconic series still beloved today. Many of their works have been adapted into anime, dramas, movies, and even sequels for newer generations.

Here are just a few of the names who lived and worked at Tokiwa-so: 

• Osamu Tezuka (Black Jack, Phoenix)
•  Fujiko Fujio (Doraemon, Perman)
• Shotaro Ishinomori (Kamen Rider, Cyborg 009)
• Fujio Akatsuka (Osomatsu-kun, Himitsu no Akko-chan)

These young artists spent their youthful days in this humble apartment. On hot summer nights, they would fill the long, shared kitchen sink with water and soak in it to cool off. Late at night, as they boiled water in the kitchen, they would often run into others who were also staying up all night drawing manga. When one of them got a new serialization in a comic magazine, they’d all cram into a room and celebrate with a mix of shōchū (a Japanese distilled spirit) and soda, which they nicknamed “chū-dā.” It was a time of youth, passion, and camaraderie, all centered around their love of manga. 

Time passed, and their old, memory-filled apartment was finally taken down in 1982 due to old age. However, even after the building was demolished, it remained a symbolic place for manga fans across Japan, and many continued to visit the site. Then, in 2020, the dream of many fans finally came true: the Tokiwa-so Manga Museum opened, faithfully reconstructing the appearance and interior of the original building. From the rooms to the working spaces, and even the famously creaky stairs―everything was brought back to life.

If you visit the museum, don’t miss the nearby ramen shop, Matsuba. The young manga artists of Tokiwa-so often slurped down bowls of Matsuba’s ramen. The scene was depicted in a Fujiko Fujio manga as a character called “Ramen-Loving Koike-san,” who was always slurping ramen. Matsuba continues to serve ramen with the same flavor today, letting visitors taste a bit of Showa-era nostalgia. And yes ― you can order a chū-dā, just like the young manga artists once enjoyed.

Tokiwa-so was more than just an old apartment. It was a cradle of creativity, where dream-filled youth gave birth to the world of Japanese manga we know today. 

Please visit the official website of Tokiwa-so Manga Museum.